A few days ago, my brother showed
me a meme depicting a pictorial representation of Rahul Gandhi’s intellectual
ability. It was minimalistic, yet funny. Noticing our shared confidences, my
mother excitedly bustled over to see what our source of joy was. She laid her
eyes on the meme and turned away with a distasteful look on her face. No laughter
escaped her lips.
Now points to be noted are:
a) My
mother is extremely critical of Congress.
b) She
has, time and again, been appalled by Mr. Gandhi’s lack of political acumen.
c) She
is a victim of corruption, bureaucratic malpractices and red tapism for the
better part of three decades (First under the Asom Gana Parishad Rule and later
by the Congress). This is will actually make a pretty great story but I’m
saving that for later.
d) She
is an avid reader and carefully formulates her opinions based on her own
intellectual ability (she’s a doctor so yes, she’s pretty smart). Her recent
exercise of her electoral franchise is a case in point. She preferred to vote
for an independent entity already predicted to lose and she rightfully claimed
it as her ‘bibek’or vote’ (a vote of consciousness).
Considering the above
characteristics, I thought my mother would be a perfect audience for the
aforesaid meme. But she proved me wrong.
Her murmur of disproval was apparent.
On being coaxed a little she revealed why.
She thought of Rahul Gandhi as a
person. Not just a politician, a silver-spoon-in-your-mouth-entitled-human, an
unfit candidate for the representation of the democratic diversity of the
country but just one simple human being with similar biological, psychological,
physiological processes as you and I.
She has no qualms constructively
criticizing his policies, his lack of oratory skills, his undeserved
entitlement and political stance. She also enjoys her share of the Jocoserious
cartoon column that appears daily in The Assam Tribune as well as the cartoons
regularly deployed by news agencies to give a humourous twist to the ailing
socio-economic, political, environmental conditions of the country.
So, why did this particular meme
not appeal to her?
Because inspite of the injustices
she had suffered in the hands of the political system, she believes that human
dignity is untouchable. That the meme did nothing to further the debate on
whether Mr Gandhi deserves to be the face of Congress or whether the recent ‘Congress-mukt
Bharat’ will become a reality due to his dithering brand of politics was a
point of concern. Making fun of a person on a social media platform just for
the sake of ripping apart his human dignity constituted plain bullying to her. ‘Sadistic
pleasure’, in her own words, was intolerable.
My mother, the feminist, the one
who tells me to chin up and battle on no matter what life throws at you, the
one who has suffered at the harsh hands of people she called family, the one
who’s bitterness could have overwhelmed any other person, felt bad for the
least sympathized political figure in India.
I’m not drawing any parallels
with the recent uproar on Tanmay Bhat’s rant which I hear is putting social
media on fire because I simply beg ignorance on this account. I’m refraining
from being subjected to any overt display of armchair activism which obviously
translates to deactivation of Facebook (thank you very much).
This is just a small humane
account of one person’s sensitivity to another person’s dignity. A very small
reminder that you get dirty when you throw mud at someone else. That a culture
of intolerance is as much as harmful as a culture of sadistic humour. That sometimes,
maybe sometimes, in our rush to claim our freedom of speech we become unknowing
bullies in a fickle diversity. That laughter, at the expense of another, might
not always be the best medicine.
My mother. Who refused to
conform.
